


Atoll of Grass and Glow

by Spellfire01



Series: A Jumper's Guide To Fragmented Universes [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: (kinda), Adventure, F/M, First Meetings, Magic, Meet-Cute, Pre-Relationship, flying fish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 16:43:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14116593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spellfire01/pseuds/Spellfire01
Summary: Quickly, you throw down the Hat, spinning it as you do with practiced ease, you don’t even look to see if it’s started working before you turn to the other thief, offering your hand urgently. “It’s time to go.” Is the only explanation you offer for your actions.





	Atoll of Grass and Glow

**Author's Note:**

> This is a series of fics I'm writing to practice world-building ft. Jefferson and his many companions exploring different places I'm making up on the spot and building as I'm writing. It may eventually have a plot as there are some things I wanna play around with but for the most part, it's just a bit of fun. Anyway, this is just my headcanon of how Jefferson and Priscilla met (with some canon thrown in).

Quickly, you throw down the Hat, spinning it as you do with practiced ease, you don’t even look to see if it’s started working before you turn to the other thief, offering your hand urgently. “It’s time to go.” Is the only explanation you offer for your actions.

She looks at you as though you’re mad, then looks at the Hat in all its huge, growing, spinniness and back at you again. Then towards the doorway because, fuck, the guards are getting closer still, they’ll be gaining on you any second now by the sounds of their armor rattling.

“You’re going to have to trust me.” You push on, gesturing wildly towards the Hat.

“I’d rather take my chances in jail.”

You grimace and, in your desperation to escape, yell the first thing that comes to mind, pointing at the top corner of the room. She has the Tiara clasped tightly in her hand so there’s no way you’re letting her go with thing you came to this wretched land for anyway. “Quick, look! A distraction!" 

Of course she looks instantly, but before she can properly register your words you’ve already pushed her into the Hat and are jumping in after her.

She lands on her ass and you land gracefully next to her on your feet.

You offer up your hand but she glares at you and rejects it, getting up by herself and moving on as though the whole escaping kerfuffle never happened. You can appreciate that. “Where the hell are we?” She asks, despite her defensiveness she has wonder behind her green eyes at the multitude of doors circling you which you also appreciate with a grin.

“Inside an old friend.” Then it’s your turn to frown, mostly at your word choice because that sounded a little weird. That doesn’t necessarily make it any less true though.

“Uh-huh…” She replies, distracted by one door in particular. Well. More of a mirror than a door.

She raises her hand as if to touch it’s surface and you jump into action once more, catching her wrist with an “Ah-ah, no. We’re not going there this time”. You let go because she seems a little antsy.

“Where are we going this time, then?” She asks, watching it curiously before turning her eyes to you and the rest of the doors, as if it’s a perfectly reasonable question and you didn’t just shove her through a goddamn Hat.

You decide that you like her with a sharp smirk that she eyes suspiciously.

“Wherever you want to go. Apart from the looking glass.”

She nods wordlessly and paces around the room. It takes her less than half a minute to chose before she takes a confident step towards a small door made of driftwood that looks as though it’s barely holding together with twine (but that’s just because you made it), its cracks softly glowing with a mysterious cyan light.

“This one.” She decides simply.

You’re a little surprised by her choice but who are you to deny such a beautiful lady. “As you wish.” The door is ajar when you push it as it doesn’t have a handle, it opens both ways so you don’t particularly care, there’s nothing dangerous about this land to humans anyway. Well, not if you don’t stay for long. “Ladies first.”

She steps out onto a long strip of teal grass, sky dark with the night and shining with millions upon millions of stars which reflect on the surface of the huge lake the the island circles around to cut it off from the sea.

You step through and, after the Hat shrinks down to size again, pick it up with a graceful dip. Before you can put it on however, you spin around on your heel only to fall flat on your face as some hard force collides with your cheek with a loud SLAP. You manage to keep ahold of your trusty portal, and with your other hand, push yourself up into a sitting position then raise it to your sharply stinging cheek, wincing harshly at the hot pain.

“That’s for shoving me blindly into a magical hat.” Says the thief, looking fierce and sure and done with your bullshit. You guess you deserved that to be honest, you didn’t even tell her it was going to take you into a safe limbo.

You take a moment just to appreciate the way the two pink moons light up her fiery hair to make it look rosy and how you could get used to looking up at those eyes before she stoops down to kneel in front of you, nearly at eye level, and, before you can really wrap your head round it, pulls your hand away and leans in to gently kiss your inflamed cheek in apology.

The kiss lingers for just a second too long before she’s standing up again, holding out her hand for you to take, voice soft and smile softer when she adds “And that’s for saving me”.

All you can think, not just because she’s hot and could beat you up if she wanted to, is ‘holy shit, I’m going to marry her’.

You take her hand, the contact nearly as impacting as the slap she gave you, and sure enough she pulls you to your feet with ease. Despite your want to, you do let go of her hand. You have only just met after all.

“What do you call this place anyway?”

“The Atoll of Grass and Glow.”

She raises her eyebrows at you and looks around once more. “I don’t see anything glowing.”

“Wait.” You reply, leading her over to the far edge of the island to the shallows of the ocean, the indigo water stretching as far as the eye can see. You stop just short of the range the gentle waves reach and stoop to run your hand through the water.

You watch as her face lights up again in wonder as the water turns a bright cyan blue with the motion, stretching more than a meter in diameter from your hand, the glow strong enough to light up your faces. “Only the sea glows, the lake doesn’t but you can drink from it, the sea is too salty still.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” She crouches down to run her hand along the surface to see the effect for herself, you watch with a smile as the glow lights up the both of you again.

“That’s because everything works differently here, each land has its own laws of nature and magic. Try not to question it too much and we’ll be just fine.”

She nods slowly with a look of consideration, and lifts her hand up from the water, examining the tiny glowing droplets on it up close to her face. “…Priscilla”

Your frown, blink a couple of times because that sounds more like a name than a simpler word for the magic of universes and how they work. She extends her wet, salty, glowy hand to you with a small grin.

It clicks.

You show one of your sharp grins again. “Pretty name. If you give me that Tiara I’ll give you mine.”

Priscilla raises an eyebrow. “I doubt it’ll be as pretty as the Tiara. I worked hard to get there first you know, I don’t think that’s gonna cut it.” She lifts the hand that’s been gripping the object of both your affections and turns it over in her hand, watching the polished Labradorite embedded in the silver shine faintly and glow fantastic colours in the moonlight.

Your thieving instinct is shouting to grab it. Your heart is telling you yes but your brain is telling you no. If you’ve got to live with her for until she hands it over - which you really don’t mind, she is certainly very beautiful - you don’t really want the idea of her murdering you to get it back sprouting in her head.

“In fact” Priscilla continues, raising it to gently place upon her head, stealing your breath too while she’s at it. “I think I’ll keep it, how do I look?”

_Like an empress. Step on me._

Your clear your throat, shrugging. “The money it could fetch for sounds just as lovely.”

She smirks at you. “Hmmm…Maybe, if you give me your name I’ll offer you my company instead. For all the trouble I can tell you’re worth I could use a little adventure every now and again.”

You tell her that’s hardly fair. “Deal.” Wait- what?!

You sigh long sufferingly, partly because she’ll probably be the death of you at this rate, though mostly because of your brain - off the bat with one two many hits to it probably - and Priscilla raises her wet, salty, glowy hand again to shake. You do so with your own wet, salty, glowy hand to seal the deal.

“Jefferson’s the name.”

Priscilla smiles that soft, almost disarming smile again and holds your hand for longer than needed, then drops it, standing up and looking over her shoulder at you. “…Shame, it really was as pretty as the tiara.” She winks before she turns and walks away casually as if she’s been to the Atoll of Grass and Glow a million times and as you’re left squatting like an idiot and gaping like a fish, it hits you once again. You really are well and truly doomed in the best possible way.

You both wander about the ring of the island for a stretch of time, talking occasionally and trading teasing comments.

Your dinner is made of the large, deep violet, berry-like fruits that can be found on huge, seaweed-looking vine plants that oddly enough have the exact taste and texture of warm, buttered bread, the skin mimicking the crust and all. If it weren’t for the pip in the middle the size of a pebble, it’s outward appearance and the dusty pink of the inside, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. There aren’t many of these plants on the island but food isn’t an issue as one is enough to fill you up for the rest of the night and some of the day after.

You both fall asleep quickly next to the strange vines using your coats as pillows and wake up slowly to soft chirps ringing in the sky and a warm, soft breeze.

The white sun nearly blinds you as you open your eyes, throwing an arm across your face and scrunching them shut before your eyes can adjust to it. You hear a chuckle form next to you and remember that you have a visitor. You open your eyes to see Priscilla and all her wild bed-hair, looking stunning nether the less in the bright light.

Both of you decide to skip breakfast but still stop by the lake to take a drink. Priscilla points across the small stretch of land to beach where a settlement of creatures have started to flock.

“What are they?” She asks, voice groggy as she idly rubs sleep from her eyes.

You answer with a tired smile and a voice that’s even rougher than hers in the early hour. “Flying fish. Want a closer look?”

She’s up on her feet before you can finish your sentence and you will your body to get up after her, taking a moment to stretch out the stiffness in your limbs from sleeping on the ground and sitting down by a lake for some time with a satisfied sigh.

Priscilla waits for you but as soon as you’re good to go she starts walking off in the direction of the creatures.

After catching up with her, which is pretty easy, you tell her that they’re very friendly creatures, if a little funny looking. She says that didn’t stop her from going on this adventure with you and you’re not even offended, in fact you let out a hearty laugh at her wit.

The flying fish are exactly what you said on the tin. They’re colourful the way that tropical fish are, they come in all manner of shapes and sizes with their front fins replaced with the wings of all sorts of seabirds, all of which are unfamiliar to any world you’ve ever been in, even those without magic.

“Hey you…” Priscilla says softly as one of them - with sunset colored spots and stripes, only vaguely reminding you of some sort of weird puffer fish-leafy-sea-dragon combo with matching, blue striped, peachy gull wings - shuffles up to her much like a seal and starts nudging at her boot and staring up at her with huge, white eyes.

It chirps happily like most of these creatures do when she reaches down and pets it. The creature leans up into her hand when Priscilla brushes her fingers through the plume of feathers sprouting from its spine. She giggles softly. “I think she likes me.”

You’re about to reply when she scoops it up and carries it like a baby, fussing over the creature as it lets out a steady stream of happy chirps like a purr. “What are you doing?” You settle on instead.

“What does it look like I’m doing?”

“You can’t take her with us, you know.”

“I know.” She seems a little disappointed about that fact but shrugs, scratching the creatures slightly wet scales with her nails, blinking a few times in surprise when it’s wing flaps against her face accidentally until she readjusts it to fold against its side comfortably. “I think I’m going to call you Grace.”

You cross your arms and look down at another one of these creatures, black and white and orange with puffin markings and a stingray body that starts trying to climb your leg to get the same treatment. “We’re not naming a flying fish ‘Grace’.” You nudge the creature off of your boot and it shuffles away in a huff towards the rest of the flock in disappointment.

“Hmm…How about Rosie? She looks like a Rosie.”

You roll your eyes but cave in, humoring her ridiculous naming of creatures she’s known for a few minutes.

After spending the morning with the flying fish, they all start to get restless and several of them, including Priscilla’s new buddy, take flight and head off towards the horizon, looking brighter than ever against the calm, pale pink sky.

“They’ll be back tomorrow. Maybe.” You say in an attempt to comfort her, she doesn’t seem all that upset about it though.

“How long were you planning on staying?”

You frown in confusion. “With you or this atoll?”

She looks at you, green eyes playful as she reaches up and purposefully knocks the Hat a small ways down your head. “Sorry, you’re stuck with me.”

You readjust the Hat with a grin because you really don’t mind that one bit. You could get used to this.

“I don’t know why you don’t just stay here, it’s like paradise. Hardly any danger, plentiful supplies and creature comforts.” She continues, looking towards the lavender water washing lazily against the white sand.

“Because once every week this place is underwater. By the looks of it we only have around…” You squint. “Three days before we have to leave, latest. It’ll drain like it always does over a couple of days but I’d rather not have us both drown.”

Priscilla goes quiet for a few seconds. “Shame…I guess we’ll have to make the most of it.”

After sitting in a companionable silence on the soft, turquoise grass, she announces that she’s thirsty and makes her way over to the lake to drink. You follow her because she has a point, you’re pretty parched too now that she mentions it. The water is sweet but not overwhelmingly so and it’s cool unlike the blazing midday sun. You’re glad for the soft, pink clouds shielding most of its rays form you but still strip a few unneeded layers so that you don’t overheat.

She does the same, strolling around in her underwear and it’s hard to keep your eyes off of her. You do though because even if you are a thief, you’re still a gentleman somewhat, even if that title is a pretty smudged with you.

Apparently though, Priscilla doesn’t care what you think when she decides to take a bath in the sea (she is stunning), which is very reasonable, given that the water is warm, if salty, so you join her.

She doesn’t mind that either because she’s the one who asked you to in the first place.

You could have taken the tiara from where it’s protected by her bundled up clothes on the grass and disappeared with it, sold it for a pretty sum of money. She could have stolen the Hat from where it’s placed on top of your own clothes and left you here for dead.

Instead both of you spend the next few days getting to know each other and _getting to know each other_.

(Though, you leave most of the last part out when retelling the story many times to Grace in the future, you also leave out the part where she slapped you because you wouldn’t want your precious daughter thinking that her mother was anything less than perfect. Priscilla never laid another malicious hand on you unless you literally asked for it.)

(She did end up stepping on you though, thank the many, many gods of every realm you know of.)


End file.
